Enhancement of Opium Alkaloids Production in Callus Culture of <i>Papaver rhoeas </i>Linn.

Abstract

Callus culture of <i>Papaver rhoeas </i>Linn. established on

revised tobacco medium showed presence of three opium

alkaloids namely morphine, thebaine and narcotine. The

colour of the tissue varied from light grey, dark grey and

finally black depending on the age of the tissue. The high

yielding cell lines of dark grey color were isolated and

maintained as suspension culture on revised Murashige and

Skoog's (1962) medium. These high yielding tissues were fed

with different concentrations (12.5, 25, SOand 100 mg/100 011)

of tyrosine, a known precursor of opium alkaloids in order to

further increase the alkaloid content of the tissue. The dark

grey tissues grown on RT liquid medium supplemented with

12. 5 mg/100 011 tyrosine yielded maximum percentage of

alkaloids and therefore this concentration of tyrosine is

considered as the most suitable condition for the enhancement

of alkaloids in <i>Papaver rhoeas </i>tissue culture.